David Haynes

From Heathens (1996) by David Haynes

On a Sunday afternoon in April Marcus Gabriel and his son Ali are trapped in the express lane at the Highland Park Country Lane market. In the middle of preparing a batch of dump cookies as a peace offering to Marcuss mother, Verda, they have run out of sugar. Marcus hates days like this: cool, bugless spring days when every Lutheran in St. Paul starts the car only to drive around aimlessly. The Catholics, too. Outside the grocery the streets are clotted with traffic  much worse than State Fair time. At least at fair time the Lutherans and the Catholics and the farmers stay up by the fairgrounds. Driving the two miles from Tangletown to the supermarket, no less than four drivers courteously yielded the right-of-way to Marcus. All that niceness, Marcus said to Ali, Thats what causes accidents.

Biographical Notes

Birth: August 30, 1955, St. Louis, Missouri

Author David Haynes earned a B.A. in literature from Macalester College, Minnesota in 1977 and a M.A. from Hamline University, Minnesota in 1989. A former fifth and sixth grade teacher, he served as a teacher in residence at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Haynes also served on the leadership team at the experimental Saturn School of Tomorrow. His book Right by My Side (1993) was a winner in the 1992 Minnesota Voices Project and was selected by the American Library Association as one of 1994's best books for young adults. Two of Haynes's stories have been recorded for the National Public Radio series "Selected Shorts". In 1996 Granta magazine named Haynes as one of the best young American novelists. Haynes is currently an associate professor and the director of creative writing at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

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